


A Pool of Water

by Audinosaurus



Category: Persona 3
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 02:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2564543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Audinosaurus/pseuds/Audinosaurus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She didn't like thinking about mortality. People dying wasn't something she could accept, so she ignored it and tried to distance herself from it. Here was the story of a dying young man, pouring out his feelings about mortality and the meaning of life. AU in which Saori is a denizen. Akinari dies, as per usual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Pool of Water

It'd been at least a thousand years since she'd started this work.

'Saori Hasegawa', that was the name she'd taken this time. It was something Philemon'd chosen, a regular, modern name for what she was doing. Nyarlathotep had commented at one point that it sounded 'very average and plain', but she'd brushed it off. She had no say in what name she took, after all.

It was a special job, though, for her. She was assigned to check out the current Wild Card, a girl named Minako, to check out her emotional capabilities. She played the part of a cowardly schoolgirl seeking friendship.

In all honesty, the character made her laugh. Saori couldn't imagine herself seeking out friendship as a whole. After doing various jobs for so long, meeting people and watching them die, lose their dreams, and change, she didn't like the idea of trying to find friendship.

People changed too quickly. They were unpredictable and violent and they always had a cruel side, even the best of them. 

It was during this job that her views changed. 

It was just a few months of acting. She lived in the school dorms and went to school every day, like a normal student. During these periods of acting, she wasn't allowed to do anything that she'd normal be able to do as a denizen. No changing forms, no healing or fighting shadows. She was just a normal plain-jane human girl who couldn't find good friends.

There was one day in particular where the life of a plain-jane high school girl was particularly boring and she found herself sitting on the swings at a park, late after school. 

Someone else arrived on the scene, a tall boy with grey hair and pasty skin. He seemed to struggle to walk, and even when he finally reached the bench, his chest heaved, trying to get enough air into his body.

Pressing her cheek to the cold chain, Saori examined him. She'd seen rock bottom of illness, people with sores so rotten that bone was visible, children and elders starved to the point that every one of their ribs was visible, but there was something ethereal, beautiful even, about this particular portrait of sickness. 

And so, she sought out his company.

"Kamiki Akinari." He introduced himself, as she silently sat beside him. "And you are?"

"Hasegawa Saori." 

"You've been through a lot, haven't you?" He questioned.

Furrowing her brow, Saori shook her head. "I don't think so. I've done a lot of things, but I signed up for it."

"Did you? Or do you just do it because you have no clue what else to do?"

"I don't know." She shrugged, and smiled. "Let's just talk about the present instead."

And they spent a long time discussing the present. Saori discussed the cowardly schoolgirl she acted as, while Akinari discussed his feelings. 

There was something about Akinari that really reminded Saori of a pool of water. He was clear, easy to fall into and soak herself in.

She was drowning before she knew it, but her time was up. Akinari had let her flip through the pages of his notebook, reading through the story he'd written, the day before she was set to leave her role.

That story broke her heart.

She didn't like thinking about mortality. People dying wasn't something she could accept, so she ignored it and tried to distance herself from it. Here was the story of a dying young man, pouring out his feelings about mortality and the meaning of life.

Saori returned to her life as a denizen and tried to push it out of her mind. She enjoyed this life much more, where she could explore everything and anything on Earth and some things out of it. 

It bothered her, though. Being exposed to mortality like that, intending on dipping her feet in and ending up over her head. 

Her true role was as a guide for those souls who were particularly special-- Philemon and Nyarlathotep's preferred. Years ago she'd taken away the soul of a war torn world's symbol of peace, and then just three years after a dictator condemned for ruthless crimes and his new bride. 

Tonight, she was taking someone Philemon liked, who he described as 'closer to finding the answer to life than any previous human has without assistance.' The last thing she expected was for it to be Akinari, and yet she ended up in his room, standing over the bed where he slept. 

Sitting on the bedside, she reached over and placed a hand on his chest, feeling the heaving breaths that'd caught her eyes before. His eyes flickered open at the touch, momentarily startled, but quickly settling into the same calm they always were, like a ripple in a pond.

"You're not wearing your uniform." He commented. 

"I'm not." As a denizen, she could wear anything, but often she defaulted to a white, loose-fitting frock. It made her look ghostly, she thought.

"You really have been through a lot." Akinari laughed, though it turned to wheezing. Saori couldn't help but frown.

"Does it hurt?"

"A little. But I signed up for this." He replied, using her own words against her.

Reaching for one of his hands, Saori ran her fingers over the knuckles. She examined the boney fingers and dry skin of the palm. Pulling herself to her feet, she tugged that hand from it's body, separating it like sheets of fabric stuck together with static-- But it wasn't the limb that came apart, no, it was the soul coming apart from the body.

"Doesn't that hurt less?" She asked, smiling almost sheepishly. 

"I suppose so." He answered. "Does this mean you're like a shinigami?"

"I suppose so."

"What happens now?"

"I hand you off to the people who decide what happens to you." Saori frowned. "If you're really lucky, you could end up like me. I have no clue what happens to the others."

"I suppose whatever happens will happen, then. I get to spend this time with a friend, at least. I couldn't ask for more." Akinari's smile reminded her of the drowning sensation, of mortality. "Do you have a name?"

"No." Saori responded, shaking her head. "I haven't had a name in a few thousand years."

"Saori suits you." Akinari replied, with a nod. "I'll use that name, for now."

**Author's Note:**

> I just really love Akinari and Saori as a pairing and also anything that involves them with Philemon and Nyarlathotep.


End file.
